Natsumi
by Starsawait
Summary: The AVALANCHE crew, under the lead of Sephiroth, have a mission to find a secret book that was mentioned by an old friend. What will happen when, or if, they find the book? Yes, I DID say under the lead of Sephiroth! CloudXYuffie SephXFFVII Population
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

He fell back on the ground gasping for air, soon looking over at his barely conscious ninja friend. He picked up a sword easily twice or three times his weight. He moved some of his blond hair out of his eyes and jumped into fighting stance, staring down his long-haired foe.

"It's okay Yuffie, I'll take care of things from here." Yuffie tried getting up, only to clutch her stomach in pain and go back to the ground.

With a great leap the blond swordsman jumped after his opponent, clashing blades with his enemy's equally admirable sword.

Upon hearing sounds of metal clinging, so many sounds in what seemed like a second, Yuffie tilted her head up to look at the fight with envy. She looked over as she saw a woman with long hair and worried eyes, not to mention the breasts Yuffie had dreamed about having since meeting the girl.

"Ugh...Tifa?" Yuffie let out, still in pain.

"Are y-," Tifa began before seeing the blond swordsman plummet to the ground with his sword still gripped tightly in his hand. The long, silver haired warrior walked up, looking down at the swordsman, now on the ground.

"You did rather well this time, Cloud." Cloud looked up, his face bleeding a little from a scrape he received during his fall.

"Y...You think so?" The long-haired man simply nodded, then looked over at a handsome gunman with a mysterious impression due to his 'vampire capes' as Yuffie called them.

"Vincent, you and Cid will be next to spar with me, is that okay?" Vincent plainly walked forward in response. Cid, a man a good bit older than Cloud and Yuffie, and a man with a very irritated attitude and easily angered, Cid loved most of all one thing, his cigarettes.

"Better watch out, Sephiroth!" The silver haired warrior merely looked at Cid, before putting his sword up, ready for his next battle. Without a moment to spare, Cid jumped high into the air, and put a **big **emphasis on high. Everyone on their team had some kind of skill that even Sephiroth could acknowledge. Tifa and Barrett, who had sparred with Sephiroth before Cloud and Yuffie, and then Aerith and Red XIII (or Nanaki, a name that only Sephiroth and Nanaki's family and friends at home referred to him as, everyone else just calls him Red) before them all had their own strengths.

Cloud walked over to Yuffie and sat down next to her.

"You feeling all right?" Yuffie wanted to say yes, but all she could do was recall why she had ended up like this in the first place, and what it had caused.

Cloud was holding swords with Sephiroth gaining a slightly upper hand to his surprise, but also knowing Sephiroth was probably going pretty easy on him, when Yuffie jumped at Sephiroth from behind with her Shuriken. Sephiroth pulled back and hit Yuffie with the hilt of his sword into her stomach with a force that sent her flying backward, and Cloud couldn't help but notice and started to move to help her, but only to leave himself open for Sephiroth, in which he got a direct hit on Cloud, sending him down with Yuffie.

Remembering this made Yuffie feel so weak, and she caused Cloud to take a hit at her cause. But thinking about it, she did realize that Cloud _did _care about her, if only a little, and this caused her to blush a little and get a small smile, but it wasn't for long, because she still felt guilty.

"Hmm...Sephiroth's in an aggressive mood today, Cid might want to watch what he does this time around," Cloud said, looking at Cid taunting Sephiroth, even though barely able to even keep his balance against the strongest person in their group by far. Vincent was surprisingly nowhere to be seen, probably planning to attack Sephiroth when he was focused enough on Cid, which wouldn't take long at this rate.

Tifa got up. "I'm going to see how Barrett's doing, okay, Cloud?" Cloud just nodded.

Yuffie looked up at Tifa walking away, then over at Barret. Barret was a very buffed out man, having enough muscle, at least in appearance, for Cloud, Sephiroth, and Cid combined. He had one of his upper arms replaced with a gun, after an attack on them by Shinra, in which she heard some of the story about by Barret not so long ago at Corel Prison when they were accused of a mass murder in the Battle Square by Dio, she shuddered by just remembering his name. She didn't go with them to meet Dyne, so she didn't get the full story, and was still a little curious, but not so much. Sephiroth and his spoiled self was never down there to begin with, seeing as Dio apparently saw him as 'a glorious boy' after Sephiroth had won the Battle Square arena the day before the killing. According to Dio, Sephiroth was the only one who had beaten the Battle Arena completely aside from 'the great Dio himself'. Yuffie could imagine the only "monster" in the arena when he walked in was a punching bag.

"You know, Yuffie, I still haven't heard if you were feeling okay or not," this snapped Yuffie out of her own world, making her jump.

"Uhh...yeah, I'm okay," Yuffie had realized she _was_ feeling better than before, she decided she just needed to take her mind off the pain.

"That's good to hear I guess," and after leaving a sigh of relief, Cloud laid back on the ground taking a rest he probably deserved.

Yuffie looked down at Cloud, imagining the swirling blue behind Cloud's closed eyes. Thinking to herself, it had really been a long time since they sat together like this, even if it was after a sparring match with death himself.

"You know I bet you could fight better if you cut your hair and lost 30 pounds!" Cid yelled out, just barely dodging one of Sephiroth's attacks. Yuffie couldn't help but giggle at Cid, he had an edgy attitude, but he could be funny when it came to getting on others' bad sides. Sephiroth didn't show it, but she could tell he was getting irritated at Cid, just like Cloud said, he was in an aggressive mood today, her stomach was proof of that, and Cid was going more on the insults than he ever had before.

Soon she saw Vincent almost morph from the shadows behind Sephiroth and come at him with that golden-looking gauntlet of his. Still in mid-swing at Cid, Sephiroth instantly turned around with his sword and hit Vincent across the face with the blunt end of his sword, sending Vincent twisting through the air, just as fast he cast an ice spell behind him at Cid, sensing him coming closer.

Yuffie looked in awe...Sephiroth never...NEVER dropped his guard.

End of Chaper 1

Note: This might seem confusing to some, but Sephiroth isn't an enemy in this story, though most of the story of FF7 has gone like in the game, just with Sephiroth either with them or not with them, but their goal wasn't Sephiroth. Later on my story will reveal some questions I don't feel like answering right now.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Square Soft/Enix. Period. And if I don't own them, then what can't I own? You get the picture. For those of you who haven't guessed, FFVII.**_

CHAPTER 2

They had only about five minutes left on the Junon boat to Costa Del Sol. Sephiroth sparred with the party once every other weak, so fighting skills wouldn't get too rusty. Usually, they wouldn't take a small vacation after a day of training, but Sephiroth decided to make an exception. Although Yuffie was excited about taking a nice break at the famous Costa Del Sol, known especially for its beach with the greatest water anyone could dream for, crystal-clear, always cool no matter the time of year, it was perfect. But...every great place has its downfall, that's where the inn, bar, and shop prices come in. The shops weren't _too_ bad, but the bar and inn...huge rip. Yuffie was feeling sick yet again on the boat, she really couldn't stand sea or air travel for that matter.

Yuffie felt a gloved hand touch her shoulder. "It's okay, Yuffie, we're almost there." Yuffie felt him behind her, she could already see the spiky blond hair in her eyes...she never liked talking to people like this, especially Cloud. She decided to act as well as possible.

"It's alright, Spikes, I'm doin' fine!" She twisted around to see no one there. A few sailors who were talking just stared at her in confusion for a moment before getting back to their conversation.

"Damn Cloud, could at least stay for a second..." Yuffie started mumbling, before having to bend back over the rail on the deck, trying to hold down her last meal. Motion sickness: Yuffie's biggest weakness.

XXXXXXXXXX

Yuffie had to sit down and take large breaths to calm herself down as Cloud had instructed her once the last time they were on the Junon boat. Sephiroth and Cloud were checking into the inn.

"I'm sorry," the innkeeper started "but we've only got 3 available rooms left..." Sephiroth only gave her 1,000 gil and, even knowing how many of them there were, he counted everyone out loud, so they would know the situation. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8," then pointing at himself, "9, okay, so we'll have three of us to a room, go ahead decide who'll stay with who, it doesn't matter to me." Yuffie got up, feeling better.

Yuffie thought to herself, remembering Cait Sith, he would have been a 10th she guessed, but only a day after journeying with everyone, Sephiroth had found out the giant plush moogle and toy cat was a spy for Shinra, and recycled the two into a more useful toy, lucky them.

"Okay, let's go to the beach now! We can deal with room stuff later!"

After a while, everyone headed out to the beach. Vincent had on his normal capes, Barret in a tank-top which read, 'Look at me, I AM a tank!', the girls in their bikinis, Sephiroth in his normal clothing, and Cid wearing a T-Shirt and shorts. Cloud had to be convinced, well, forced to wear shorts, but he still kept his normal clothing otherwise, except for the pauldron (armor on his shoulder) he removed.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Momo, c'mon, don't be shy..." A young girl started, "Guys aren't something to be scared of, just flirt a little bit, have some fun, it can't be _just_ us here on the beach, huh?"

"But, Naomi, I..." The other two girls she was with just laughed.

Momo flustered. "Naomi, Natsumi, you two are so cruel!" They giggled a little more before Naomi started looking around again.

Momo was young, had longish black hair, brown eyes, and always wore a bracelet on her right arm she got from her mother. Naomi was only a little older than Momo, but somewhat taller, which isn't saying much, she had long hair, slender, also brown eyes, and she would _make sure_ she looked good, no matter what happened. Natsumi's eyes were somewhat strange, she had green eyes, with what seemed like hints of blue mixing in, and if the sun shined right in her path, they'd seem to sparkle a little with the blend of color. Natsumi was the same age as Naomi, about her height, and her hair was grown to a little shorter than Momo's length, but to where her bangs could get in her eyes easily.

Naomi stopped looking around, and as if like a hawk spotting a rodent, she stared down a man talking to one of his friends. "There's one for you, Momo, try talking to him." She looked over at him, flushed a little with embarrassment.

"I...can't..." She worded slowly. As Naomi started lecturing Momo on what she had to get through her head, Natsumi patted them both on the shoulder, then pointed.

"Look...there..." The two of them looked up to find the word gorgeous in a materialized form. Firm, strong, calm, the cutest haircut they had ever seen, and then seeing the most fantastic eyes they could imagine, glowing blue with a sort of swirl. He WAS perfection, there was only one person they could think of that could even match his looks.

After looking for a while, speechless, Naomi was the first to speak.

"D-D-Do Y-You S-S-S-See that!?" She managed to spurt out. Natsumi could only nod, wide-eyed. Momo dropped to the floor, her legs got too weak. Soon after, a mysterious but handsome man walked in with a big red lion-dog (what they saw it as).

"Look at him!" Natsumi blurted out. The man may have not had as much of an impression as the last, but he was worth goggling over as well in half the beaches' eyes.

"Too bad he has to hide himself like that," Naomi stated.

The cloaked man went to sit down with the blond haired man. The three of them looked in a type of surprise.

"They know each other!?" All three looked at each other, then back at the two, who were also sitting next to a few people.

They soon found the biggest surprise they could expect. They saw someone walking toward their two previous 'beach favorites'.

Momo started to stutter out, "I-Is T-That..."

Naomi looked, rubbing her eyes thinking, but not hoping, it was some kind of mirage. "It's him!"

The three girls heard from across the beach at their side, "The Silver Angel, Mei." The little six year old girl looked up at her parents.

"He's a angel?"

"That's the name they gave him, you see, it was about 2 years ago that a town near where our home is was under attack, and hearing of the attack, we knew and feared ours would be next, and the inevitable happened, it came. It was a great beast, a dragon, rare sight, but ferocious as they come. But before any lives at our town could be taken, as if out of the sky, the Silver Angel, also known as Sephiroth came and with a might sweep of his sword, had slain the dragon with one strike across the chest. Ever since then he was called the Silver Angel by many, even those who did not live at our home because of his entrance and noble protection of us." The little snuggled into her mother.

"Wow, I'll be back!" Then ran off toward Cloud and his party with a happy skip.

Even though she heard the story before, it amazed Momo even now that the Silver Angel was here in the flesh, on a beach with some friends no less.

Mei ran back to her family soon, saying that the Silver Angel's friends liked her.

"Ha, everyone knows he wouldn't have that name if it wasn't for his hair, just look at it..." Naomi started, "Hey, guys, wanna do a little spying? We can see what they're all doing up there!" Momo jumped up instantly.

"NO way! Who knows what'll happen if they find out what we're doing!" Natsumi just shook her head.

"Momo, that's the funnest part!" Naomi gave her a thumbs up.

XXXXXXXXXX

"So...Cloud, wanna go swimming?" Yuffie suggested with puppy eyes knowing the answer she'd normally get.

"No." Cloud's blunt answer.

"Then...while you're out here, at least take your shirt off, Spikes! Do something if you're gonna sit out here, like work on a tan or somethin'!" Yuffie inched closer to Cloud.

"No," Cloud answered with his eyes closed, sitting back.

Upon hearing this, the three spies couldn't help but gasp a little. Natsumi whispered to the others, "So Cloud's his name...oh wow...wait, look."

Yuffie inched slowly closer to Cloud, "You sure, Chocobo head?"

"Don't call me that, and no," Cloud answered, sitting up and opening his eyes, only to find a Yuffie jumping on top of him trying to pull up his shirt.

"Yuffie, what are you-" He tried getting her off, but she had him pinned pretty good, so he'd have to use more force. Yuffie put on a big evil grinned and looked at Vincent from the corner of her eye. She looked back and forth from Tifa to Aerith. As if signaling an attack she tilted her head and winked. Vincent, now noticing what was about to come started to make his escape, only to be tackled helplessly.

Cloud started pushing on Yuffie, and started hearing his shirt stretch a little, she wasn't letting go, and his shirt ripped didn't help anything. He started contemplating another way to get her off, when then she knocked him off his chair into the ground and pulled off his shirt safely.

"Yes!! Ha Ha Ha!" Yuffie waved Cloud's shirt around in victory, until she actually looked at Cloud when he stood up, pretty frustrated. He was...

"Lemme see!" Momo whispered loudly when they saw the battle was over.

"Oh my...he's...he's...PERFECT!!" Natsumi couldn't help but blurt it out loud enough to where AVALANCHE could here her. "Momo, isn't he...Momo?"

Momo had fainted.

Yuffie looked at Cloud in awe...he WAS perfect...she couldn't say anything, she almost wanted to walk up to Cloud and touch him,as if he were a huge shiny materia, but then she shook her head. She was having too much fun too let her feelings and urges get the better of her. She turned toward the mighty warrior himself.

"Okay, Sephy, you're next!" Sephiroth only slightly moved his head up, and in a cold voice he merely stated, "Try me." Yuffie, in fact, _did_ try him. Knowing her leader all too well, she knew a pouncing approach would only get her hospitalized for a week. She flipped over Sephiroth's chair, behind him and tried to grab him. Sephiroth had already moved and put Yuffie in his old spot, one-handedly holding her down on his chair.

"You'll have to do better than that if you even plan on laying a finger on me."

Meanwhile, Tifa and Aerith had just removed Vincents upper capes, after which released the sounds of giggles and girlish screams around the beach, similar to the Cloud effect. Aerith and Tifa ran over to join Yuffie's struggle and attack him from all sides. Girls around the beach soon realized what was going on and ran to join in. This posed BIG trouble for Sephiroth, since Tifa, Aerith, and Yuffie, were a part of his team, he could be more harsh to them, with civilians joining in on this, he now had to hold back all his strength in case someone got hurt.

The next three hours at the beach were a big game of Strip the Silver Angel. During that time, Cloud, Vincent, Cid, Barret, and Red all hung out in the water, seeing as Cloud and Vincent had been 'convinced' to take their shirts off anyway.

XXXXXXXXXX

In the end, the game of SSA was unsuccessful, the entire beach had fun with this event, but Sephiroth was a worthy opponent, even if he couldn't use his normal strength. The sun was setting at this point and Cloud was hanging out in a beach chair while everyone else was inside talking about rooms.

Cloud didn't like to be there because choosing rooms always led to arguing at some point. Momo had finally woken up and she and her friends were still at the beach as well, eyeing Cloud.

"Momo, you should go talk to him, all his friends are in the town now. Momo only slumped down some.

"You know I can't, especially to someone like him..." She stated with an embarrassed look on her face, moving her eyes toward Cloud, who hadn't put his shirt back on just yet.

"You'll be fine," Naomi said just as she and Natsumi started slowly pushing Momo toward Cloud, just laying there. Momo didn't know what to do, they were pushing her toward a guy like this! With one final 'go get 'em' push, they sent her flying into the sand next to Cloud, some of it splashed up onto him.

"You need help?" Cloud asked as he held out his hand to Momo while she was on the ground. She put her hand up and grabbed Cloud's, and he pulled her up towards him, now having one arm around her waist for support, she seemed to Cloud like she had a little trouble balancing herself. Unfortunately for Momo, the reason for this was Cloud himself.

Momo just looked up into the blue-glowing swirly eyes that belonged to Cloud...she couldn't stop staring, she felt like she was going to faint again.

**End of Chapter 2**

**No preview for you!**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII or Square Enix/Soft. **_

_**Sorry for being so late, I left for a while with no computer access.**_

CHAPTER 3

"Okay then, the rooms are settled," Tifa said as she went over to her room. Cid rubbed his forehead.

"So it's me, Vincent, and Barret in one room, Cloud, Sephiroth, and Red in another, and then the girls in the last, huh?" Vincent nodded. Cid got a frustrated look on his face. "Get Tifa back out here, this decision ain't gonna work out! All three girls in one room'll have too much noise for me to get any sleep at all!" Sephiroth actually stood up with a face that had emotion on it, 'very rare' was everyone's thought. Sephiroth motioned Red XIII to get Tifa.

"That's true, I would rather have some sleep today, not only do we have a troublesome day ahead for tomorrow, but today has made me weary as well." Aerith couldn't help but giggle when she heard that comment, thinking back to earlier on in the day. Tifa walked out with Red.

"Oh, come on, Sephiroth! We'll be quiet I promise! Right, Aerith?" Aerith just giggled again. Tifa pouted. "That's not helping any..." Yuffie stood up, looking about as frustrated as Cid.

"C'mon! You think that we're gonna keep you all up like that? I'm tired, too, so I'm going to bed early anyway, gawd! You think just 'cause we're girls, we're gonna be soo loud? Think about it, Cid and Barret wake up everyone in whatever town we stay in when they start arguing, don't start accusing _us_ of being the loud ones here!" Yuffie started to catch her breath, while Sephiroth simply shrugged slightly.

"Either way, I won't allow it, we're changing the rooms." Yuffie started to clench her fists, and Sephiroth responded quickly before she could blurt anything out. "To make you happy, we'll put Barret and Cid in separate rooms." Yuffie just stormed out the door.

"Arrrrgggghhhh!!" Yuffie just screamed at the top of her lungs. Cid was always annoying her like that, and this time Sephiroth had to join in and team up on her like that, Yuffie felt like she could explode at any time. She decided there was nothing that could make her any more angry. Then it happened.

Yuffie made her down to the beach when she saw him. "Cloud?" she whispered to herself. She couldn't believe it...the Cloud she knew was embracing a girl...not THAT kind of embrace she assured herself in slight relief. All the anger left her...she felt empty, with a slight bit of confusion and anxiety remaining. She couldn't help but remember Cloud's promise to her when they first met...

XXXXXXXXXX

"So...we go through these woods and up the mountains while Sephiroth and the others go to Junon using going around the mountains, right?" Barret glanced over at Cloud while saying this, and then Cloud simply nodded.

"Through here, then meet up with Sephiroth, Aerith, and Tifa at Junon." Nanaki tilted his head up.

"There's something coming toward us, we should get ready for a fight." Cloud nodded and pulled outhis sword and looked around trying to determine where exactly it was coming from. Barret charged up his gun for a Big Shot while they had the time to get ready. At a very fast speed two harriers dashed out of the trees toward Cloud.

(Harriers are monsters that kinda look like plane-birds that attack with their wings and sometimes a blast to the face, not the jet the Harrier.)

"Three O' Clock!" Nanaki yelled out. Cloud nodded and turned. Barret started frantically looking around.

"Huh? Where?" Barret looked confused. Cloud jumped at one of the harriers and cut it clean in half, before it seemed to explode...it had a materia inside it, making the mako energy swell up after it died. Barret, finally realizing where the harrier was, blasted it with his Big Shot. The battle was short, but made everyone edgy due to the surprise. Cloud started to walk.

"Let's getting moving..." Nanaki and Barret followed behind. A shadow standing on a tree looked down on them.

"Heh...it took that much for them to take on those kinds of monsters? Ha, I, the great and powerful ninja Yuffie can easily beat them up and take their materia!" The shadow had actually been following them for a while, spying on them, mainly a certain one...but had never seen them in a fight thus far. "Okay, a little further and I'll attack them by surprise...and then...nyuk nyuk..." Nanaki's ears perked up at some sounds behind him. Cloud glanced down at him.

"Something wrong, Red?" Nanaki shook his head slightly, he could probably tell better that there was someone stalking them if he had tried, but in his mind, all humans were the same, the same basic scent, all though different humans had a slight difference, but it didn't really matter to him. After a little more walking Cloud stopped to look at a hole in the ground, there was a small glow in there, probably a materia, so he decided to check it out. Right after he had knelt down, some ice shards flew out toward the party before Cloud blocked some with his sword and Barret shot a few down.

"Ah ha! So you were able to get lucky that time, but I'm not holding back anymore!" A young girl jumped down from a tree and pulled a very large Shuriken from her back. Cloud...wide eyed and sword almost dropped looked at the petit little girl...

"This...is who attacked us?" Barret looked over at Cloud.

"I can't fight that! She looks to fragile, it'd be like hurting my Marlene, and I'd never do that!" Barret put on his tough fatherly face. Yuffie started to get mad.

"OH yeah!?" Yuffie jumped in the air and cast a flamethrower-type attack down on Cloud and Barret, she decided to _not_ hit Nanaki with it since it looked like he'd eat the fire and grow bigger. Cloud decided he'd have to do something and put his hands over each other, signaling Barret to hold his fire. Barret easily agreed, still having the image of Marlene in his head. Cloud cast Mbarrier before the fire got all around them, then used it to jump through the fire up to Yuffie, who was now on a tree branch, and proceeded to pulling out his sword, which made Yuffie yelp and trip off the branch, falling to the ground with a _thump_.

Yuffie got up in a daze, looking up at Cloud, Barret, and Nanaki. "Man, I can't believe I lost!" Yuffie instantly jumped up and looked at Barret and Nanaki before staring Cloud down. "You spikey-headed jerk! One more time, let's go one more time!" Cloud shook his head.

"Not interested." Yuffie started laughing and put her head up with pride.

"You're pretty scared of me, huh?" Cloud looked at her blankly and shrugged.

"...Petrified." Yuffie stared him down a little longer before leaving a laugh and started to run the opposite direction. The then turned around.

"I'm really gonna leave! REALLY!" Cloud started thinking...she took such a huge surprise just at Cloud jumping at her and fell, to him she seemed like she could get easily surprised and killed by a monster... Cloud decided to run after her, Barret and Nanaki decided to follow behind.

"Wait a second!" Yuffie looked at Cloud with a surprised look.

"...You want me to go with you?" Cloud looked at her directly. He couldn't shake off the feeling she'd be in danger if he didn't take her with him. It just happened Cloud, Barret, and Tifa were the most overprotective of the group, Barret hitting number one in that category. Sephiroth and Nanaki could care less, most because to Nanaki she was just another human, didn't matter to him, and Sephiroth could just care less.

"That 's right." Yuffie stared into his eyes, they were so shiny and swirly and blue, it reminded her of materia, her absolute favorite possession, but actually...prettier...she started looking at him further, investigating his figure...and soon blushed before looking back into his eyes. She decided she could go with him.

Yuffie put both hands on her hips and put on her prideful pose again. "You saw how strong I was and decided you HAD to have me, didn't you!" Yuffie continued before Cloud could say anything. "Alright, I'll go with you!" Cloud decided with that settled, they had to hurry on, they spent too much time here.

"Let's hurry on." Yuffie looked over as they started to walk on. "Wait, I haven't even told you my name yet, it's Yuffie, YUFFIE! The greatest ninja of all time! Don't you forget it!" She yelled running after them.

They left the forest after a good few monsters, in which Yuffie could only watch as Cloud had wiped the floor with them...literally. She couldn't believe how strong he was, no wonder she lost, she felt safe around him, but at the same time...kind of weak and useless. She looked over at Barret, he looked like the one that would be Cloud's bodyguard or something, and then over at Red, who looked like their pet who'd obliterate anything that messed with Cloud. Cloud _looked_ like the weakest one, but man was she wrong! And then the bad part, Barret and Red were strong themselves, which made Cloud like...invincible or something! She'd hate to see what someone who was stronger than Cloud looked like, their last monster was a huge Earth Worm, and he just obliterated it without even blinking!

(Bit weaker than a Land Worm, I made it up...I think)

They just started hiking up the mountain before Yuffie was already complaining.

"Man, how much farther do we have to go, Cloud? I'm tired!" Cloud simply passed a "far enough" and kept walking. Yuffie looked annoyed.

"That's too far!" Nanaki started to put his head down.

"Why did we take her with us anyway?" Yuffie looked at Nanaki in annoyance, then after a little pondering, put on a huge face of surprise.

"H-He Talks!?" Yuffie never heard him talk until now, Nanaki had a pretty quiet personality. Cloud nodded and kept walking. Nanaki looked up at Yuffie.

"They call me RedXIII, but you can call me whatever you like, it doesn't matter to me." Yuffie put on a grin.

"Anything I like? Hmmm..." Yuffie wanted to come up with a funny nickname, but just decided to go with Red, there wasn't much else to see in him, a big red dog-wolf-lion with a fire on his tail.

They soon reached the top of the mountain and Yuffie could see where they were going. "It's about time, geez!" Cloud decided to let everyone take a break here.

"Okay, we're taking a short break, then heading off again." Yuffie sighed with relief and sat down in between Cloud and Nanaki before she started petting him, she never really got to feel his fur before, and wondered if it was like a normal dog's. Nanaki didn't take this as offensive, he actually liked it, though he didn't really show it, because his grandpa, Bugenhagen would hug and pet him, too. The petting reminded him of Bugenhagen. Yuffie was naturally petting Nanaki and looking at Cloud going through his stuff before she realized that she'd already felt like she was a part of the team and seeing them as friends like this already. She looked over at Barret who was polishing, cleaning, and tinkering with his gun-arm before the curiosity build-up finally smacked her straight across her face.

"How'd you get that anyway?" Barret looked up at her, before looking back down, mumbling something that sounded like "mind your own damn business". Yuffie decided that even though she didn't get the answer she wanted, she wouldn't ask him again, seemed like a touchy subject...and he _did_ have a gun ready to fire anyway. Yuffie decided she wouldn't ask _him_ again, but maybe she could get it out of Cloud, they seemed to be together for a while. Cloud leaned in close to Cloud's ear.

What happened to Barret's arm?" Yuffie whispered. Cloud just shrugged and looked pulled out his PHS after a little more looking. Nanaki leaned in close to Yuffie.

"You should take Barret's advice," Yuffie leaned over to Nanaki.

"Don't you ever think about it, Red?" Red just flopped over on the ground.

"Not really." Yuffie decided she wasn't getting anywhere before she heard Cloud talking.

"You're doing fine? That's good, no one got hurt or anything, right?" Yuffie heard a deep, kind of cold sound voice over the PHS.

"No, everyone's fine, don't worry about it too much, you want to talk to either of them?" Cloud nodded

while softly saying "Yes." Yuffie thought that must have been a hobby or something for him. Soon she heard a woman's voice over the phone, a kind and definitely happy voice. Yuffie shuddered at the thought of Cloud already having a girlfriend, then thought to herself. 'Why should I care? It's not like I like him or anything...' Yuffie looked over at Cloud, he was definitely the best looking guy she's ever seen, even though she hasn't seen many people other than those at her homeland and a few travelers she'd passed by. She noticed Cloud glance over at her while he was talking. She had to put her head down so Cloud couldn't see her instant blush come across her face. Cloud started talking again.

"Okay, so we'll meet in Junon, bye, Tifa." Yuffie heard the voice over the phone.

"Bye, Cloud, hope to see you soon! Be safe!" Cloud put the PHS in his pocket. Yuffie looked up at Cloud after he was finished on the PHS. She couldn't help but ask the question.

"...Who was that?" Cloud shook his head slightly.

"Tifa and Sephiroth. Those two and Aerith are the other ones that are with us, we split up just to be on the safe side of things." Yuffie looked over at Nanaki, then at Barret, then back at Cloud.

"...Safe?" Before Cloud could explain, the ground began to shake violently and the mountain started to seem unsteady. Cloud got up quickly, grabbed Yuffie, as he couldn't risk her sitting there in confusion, and jumped off the top of the mountain calling back for Nanaki and Barret to follow. They started running and jumping down the mountain as a huge crash came from the top of the mountain and a huge monster came out from the top. Nanaki looked over at Cloud, running alongside him.

"What do we do?" Cloud was near the base of the mountain at this time. He turned back towards the monster.

"You stay here with Yuffie, Barret and I will take care of that thing, we can't leave it like that." Nanaki nodded and Cloud set Yuffie down next to him. "Yuffie, you have to stay here, okay?" Yuffie looked up at Cloud. She got up.

"Let me help you fight it!" By this time the monster was charging down at them, he seemed to know who he was after. Cloud pulled readied his sword and braced himself.

"No, Barret and I have got this, don't worry about it." Yuffie didn't want to sit there and watch this time, she focused energy into her Shuriken.

"This is called my Greased Lightning! Watch closely because it'll be something that will blow your mind away!" Yuffie had her Shuriken sparking bolts on the edges to the tip of her Shuriken and charged the monster. Cloud ran up after her.

"Wait!" Yuffie was already on her way up to the monster and jumped into the air to get a straight hit in its head when an arm enveloped in energy came toward her. She couldn't really do anything to dodge it at all. She closed her eyes, hearing a huge crash-like noise and opened them up when something grabbed her, but it wasn't a monster, it was more...comfortable. Yuffie looked up to Cloud's face as he put her down on the ground. She looked over at the monster, sure enough, it was dead, and in a state where it wasn't coming back alive anytime soon.

"...Cloud?" Cloud just scowled a little.

"That's why I said not to fight it." Yuffie felt a little flustered. Cloud looked over at Junon, not too far away anymore. The monster had quickly chased them off the mountain. "Don't worry Yuffie, I wouldn't let anyone or anything hurt you." Yuffie turned away instantly, desperately needing to hide the face of hers which was now completely scarlet colored.

"Cloud...You...You promise?" Cloud was silent for a while. "Cloud, you have to promise me!" Cloud cracked a half-smile.

"Yeah, I promise, Yuffie." Barret walked past them.

"Hurry up, Spikey, we aint' got no time left now after all that's been happenin'!" Cloud started to walk with Barret and Nanaki, it took Yuffie a little breathing and recovering before she could move again, and at this time she had to catch up to them.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Cloud, why does it feel like you haven't kept your promise? You let someone hurt me." Yuffie said to herself. "And worst of all...it was you..." Cloud was now here with some random girl on a beach. It probably wouldn't be as painful if it was at least Aerith or Tifa, even though Yuffie really didn't like the thought of that But this was just some random girl Cloud was with now.

"Hey, are you hurt?" Cloud saying something again finally snapped Momo out of her thoughts. She had to pull away quickly before she hit the ground again.

"I...I'm sorry..." Momo said softly looking down. Cloud shrugged.

"It's okay, as long as you're not hurt or anything." Momo nodded.

"I'm fine, I...I'm going back t-to my friends now, okay?" After saying that Momo quickly ran away back to Naomi and Natsumi. Cloud shrugged and started to head back to the Inn when he noticed Yuffie standing there, looking troubled.

"Ah, Yuffie-" He stopped when Yuffie put up her hand. Now she looked frustrated. Cloud thought he should probably talk to her, but after a little pondering, he decided to leave her alone. Cloud walked past her slowly and headed back to the Inn. Yuffie just stood there longer. Cloud glanced back at her one more time before finally going into the Inn. Everyone in the Inn had finally made there decisions, and Cid opened his mouth to tell Cloud who went in which room, but Cloud interrupted.

"What's wrong with Yuffie?" Cloud said, focused mainly at Cid with a cold stare. Cloud never beat around the bush, he directly went into any situation, it was his type of person. After all the time they'd been together, he knew it was usually Cid who got on Yuffie's nerves the most, and this time it looked like he'd gone a little too far. Cid wasn't about to let himself be put down by Cloud for any reason, especially now.

"The hell should I know?" Cid took a cautious step forward. The whole group knew the result of this would be Sephiroth, Vincent, and Barret having to stop them from destroying the Inn. Once before something similar to this happened between Cid and Cloud before, and even though Cid got into

arguments with Barret and Yuffie the most, they never really got into much of a real fight. Things were different with Cloud, though. Cloud was protective of everyone, he and Cid's last fight had been because Cid was talking about how pathetic Barret had been when he went with them to Gold Saucer to see Dio for a magic stone to allow them into the Temple of the Ancients. The people at Coral were talking down on Barret again, and Cid really let himself go on Barret, but Barret was really sensitive on that matter.

Cloud took a few steps forward himself. Cid instantly braced himself and held his feet to the ground. Tifa ran in between the two of them.

"Cloud, Cid, don't, we're in an Inn, remember?" Cloud didn't remove his eyes from Cid's. He dashed forward past Tifa and grabbed Cid. Cid's eyes widened a little, Cloud was fast, he could give him that.

"Fine, then." Upon saying this, he threw Cid through the front door onto the streets of Costa Del Sol.

Yuffie was sitting on a huge rock next to the ocean on the beach. She started going through her thoughts. Cloud couldn't have been, he wasn't the type to just go up to a girl like that, was he? Yuffie saw Momo and the others on the beach, the other two were laughing, while she sat there blushing violently. Yuffie decided that she would go talk to them, and try to get out of them what happened, without sounding harsh or just throwing it out there like that, making her seem like a jealous fangirl of Cloud's. She was slowly making her way down the rock when she heard a huge crash from behind her.

"A monster?" Yuffie was about to go and see before stopping. "They can take care of themselves, it's not like I'll do anything anyway." Yuffie started calmly walking toward Momo and Natsumi, Naomi was getting her stuff from a different spot on the beach where she stayed for a little bit. Before doing anything, though, Yuffie just couldn't shake off her feeling of worry, and decided just to check things out. She readied a fire spell and ran over to where the sound was coming from.

**End of Chapter 3**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: Don't own FF7 or anything close to it. I plan on using this chapter to make up for the lateness of the last one, give me a little R&R if you like.**_

CHAPTER 4

"What was that?" Momo and Natsumi could feel the vibration of the crash. Momo had a bad feeling about it. Was it a monster? "Should...we...check it out?" Natsumi nodded.

"Just to see what it is, make sure not to get close to it if it's monster," Momo glanced over at Naomi across the beach.

"Should we tell Naomi?" Natsumi shook her head.

"She'll be fine, let's go." Momo followed Natsumi as she started walking slowly. Soon after, another loud crash echoed across Costa Del Sol. They started walking up the stairs from the beach, people were looking out their windows, ones with seemingly good views were looking with awe and shock. They walked onto the street to see the one Momo had just had 'tripped' into fighting with the older-looking man they saw at the beach earlier that day, and it was crazy. They walked up close behind Yuffie, who seemed to be extremely depressed at what she saw instead of surprised.

"Cloud..." She mumbled to herself. Naomi walked past Natsumi and Momo, to their surprise, and directly next to Yuffie, and looked over at her.

"So, Cloud's his name, huh? You...know him?" Yuffie nodded before looking down, she was almost sure of why Cloud was fighting with Cid. Naomi bent over to meet eye to eye with Yuffie. "You...like him?" Yuffie now instantly looked up and over at Naomi with a frustrated look.

"As if!" Yuffie folded her arms and looked the other way. She glanced back over at the fight to notice Cid jumping high into the air, putting his Dragoon Lance in the all-too-known position. He couldn't really plan to fight that seriously, would he? Cloud seemed to have noticed and put his sword in a horribly well known position as well. Aside from Sephiroth, Cloud could probably called the strongest of their group, but Cid was strong enough to where the fight could last a good three hours before a deciding victor occurred unless someone stopped them. Sephiroth was on the balcony of the bar watching, and noticing what they were preparing for, he scorned at the two of them, but didn't seem to plan on doing anything. Cid started to charge down at Cloud with a yell and Cloud was about to swing his sword in response but before the two of them met, Yuffie quickly jumped in front of Cloud, causing Cid a huge surprise and he quickly had to throw his lance into a nearby rock before plummeting into Yuffie.

"You wanna get yourself killed? What the is the matter with you!?" Yuffie ignored him and turned over at Cloud.

"Why, Cloud?" Cloud looked at her with a still cold look in his eyes.

"It was him, wasn't it?" Yuffie's expression lowered.

"No, Cloud, you don't understand at all..." Yuffie had tears welling up in the corner of her eyes now, "It was you, stupid!" At this Yuffie ran away and into the Inn. Cloud looked up at Cid and sighed. Tifa was then walking up to the two of them and put up her finger.

"Look at the two of you! Why solve anything like this? Yuffie is still young, of course it would break her heart to see two of her friends fighting like this! Did you not remember last time when you both ended out with blood all over yourselves!?" Cloud looked over at Tifa, and then back at Cid.

"I guess we should go apologize, huh?" Cid pulled out a cigarette and lit it, (man he ALWAYS has some on him!) then looked up.

"I ain't going to, she said it was your fault anyway, you do somethin' about it." Cloud scorned at him, then started walking back to the Inn.

"Fine, have it your way," Cloud hurried into the Inn after Yuffie. Momo looked over at her friends. "Uhh..." Tifa walked up to the three of them with a smile.

"It's fine, you guys don't have to worry about this, they're on edge with each other sometimes, but they usually get along pretty well," They nodded, still with a bit of surprise on their face.

"Yeah...okay." They had a room there, too, so they cautiously went into the Inn.

XXXXXXXXXX

ROOMS: 1 (Cloud, Sephiroth, Aerith) 2 (Barret, Vincent, Yuffie) 3 (Cid, Red, Tifa)

"That'll be 1,500 for the door," The Innkeeper said with a frustrated smile on her face. Sephiroth, just as frustrated, handed over the money.

"My apologies, I'll try to keep them in check from now on," after saying this, Sephiroth headed over to the group, who were all in the middle room, minus Yuffie. Sephiroth stood in the middle of everyone.

"Okay, so tomorrow we move on through Corel and into the Gold Saucer. We have come across information on a mystical book that has forbidden knowledge that Shinra and Jenova will want their hands on. We are currently on a mission to get Huge Materia before the other two can, so to stop any disaster that could possibly occur. We have one from Corel and one from Fort Condor, though we lost the one from the Underwater Mako Reactor to Shinra, sad to say. As far as we know, Jenova has no Huge Materia, I'm much more worried about her having any as opposed to Shinra. We also have no clue as to the power of these Materia, aside from enormous power, and I hope that this book we are planning to get will give us some information on them. Dio seems to know some clues as to where to find this book, so for now we'll have to trust him and go on whatever he offers us."

(Note: In this story, instead of the knowledge of Jenova making Sephiroth evil, it did just the opposite to him, making him dedicated to stopping her from destroying the world, despite her being his 'Mother'.)

Cloud got up. "I guess with that said, we should get some rest for tomorrow, and I guess I'll have to go talk to Yuffie..." Cloud sighed at this, and Tifa smiled in satisfaction. Aerith was almost asleep, in a dazed state, and Cid was already asleep.

Yuffie was sitting on her bed looking at a few of her favorite materia when Cloud walked in. Cloud walked over to Yuffie and sat on the bed with her.

"Can we...talk?" Yuffie looked away from him and scooted away from Cloud a little. Cloud looked at her with saddened look. "C'mon, Yuffie, I didn't mean to fight with Cid like that, it's just that he was-"

"Yeah, he was being a jerk, but you know what?" Cloud looked over at her. She grabbed the blanket, "You're way more of a jerk than him!" Cloud blinked.

"What do you mean?" Yuffie put her head against the backboard of the bed.

"I thought you'd be above something like skirt chasing, Cloud..." All of Cloud's emotions went on vacation, except for Confusion, who they left behind because he wasn't sure where he was.

"I don't understand what you're-" Yuffie turned over at Cloud, almost crying, and she grabbed his shoulders.

"Cloud, tell me you'll never break your promise to me!" This caught Cloud off guard, leaving him a blank face, and he wasn't sure what she meant. Confusion was still hanging around at home, until after a few minutes Basic Thought walked in after being punched in the face by Anger for saying that he was useless. Yuffie got closer to him.

"Cloud!" Cloud finally snapped to it and puzzled his memories and emotions together back into one piece. He remembered his promise finally.

"Of course, Yuffie, I'll never let anyone hurt you...ever," Yuffie looked at him with a little relief.

"Really?" Cloud put his arm around her lightly.

"Really."

XXXXXXXXXX

The sun was setting beautifully in the horizon, and Yuffie was sitting on a cliff looking out on it.

Cloud walked up to her and sat next to her. "Yuffie, there's something I really have to tell you, but I'm not sure how to say it." Yuffie instantly blushed and hid her face under her hair.

"Wh...What is it?" Cloud turned her to face him.

"Yuffie, I...you..." Yuffie was now more red than Reno's hair. Yuffie started moving her face a little closer to Cloud's, and then he started again. "Yuffie...I...think..." Yuffie was now a frozen cherry, and Cloud noticed this. He sighed, "Yuffie...I...think you need more training." Yuffie's eyes widened hugely. Her eye started twitching. Cloud looked at her, "Sorry if I offended you." Yuffie yelled out at the top of her lungs.

"This has to be a NIGHTMARE!!"

Yuffie instantly jumped up in her bed and gasped for air. "Whew, it was just a dream..." Cloud walked in the room and sat down next to her.

"Yuffie, now that we are alone, I can finally tell you this..." Yuffie looked at him surprised.

"Huh...?" Was all she could get out. Cloud put his hands on her shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes.

"Yuffie...I love you!" After saying this, he closed the distance between them and kissed her. Yuffie felt like she was melting.

Yuffie jumped up in her bed, and looked around at the dark room she was in.

"Damn..."

XXXXXXXXXX

Cloud got out of bed to get something to drink. While walking down the hall he saw a small figure.

"Hello?" The figure walked toward him then looked up.

"Hey, it's that guy who was with the Silver Angle!" Cloud looked down. 'Silver Angle?' Upon further inspection and taking into consideration the not-so-good speech skills, he figured out who it was.

"Oh, hey, it's Mei, right?" She nodded happily.

"You amembered me!" Cloud smiled and gave her a pat on the head.

"What are you doing, anyway?" She tugged at his arm.

"I'm thirsty!" Cloud smiled and picked her up to take her to get a drink.

"Cloud, that's too small!" Mei looked at it in disappointment.

"Mei, I don't think you want it bigger...you won't be able to finish." Mei looked up at him, a little angry.

"Yes I do!" Cloud sighed.

"Fine, here just hold this." Cloud started shuffling around.

"There, now you've got a bigger one." Mei looked up happily. Cloud started shuffling around some more. Mei looked at him.

"You better not get that all over my clothes, I dun wanna be all wet." Cloud sighed.

"Do you want some or not?" Mei nodded.

Cloud poured some water into Mei's cup, and then added some ice into it.

"Here, hurry and drink up so you can get back to your parents." Mei drank happily.

"Thank you, Mr. Chobo!" Cloud looked down at her as she ran back to her room.

"Mr. Chobo?"

XXXXXXXXXX

"Guess we should get back to our rooms," Aerith said. Tifa nodded.

"Yeah, it was fun looking at the sky at this time of night." They were now at Aerith's room, Tifa's was two more down.

"Goodbye 'till tomorrow!" Aerith and Tifa hugged, then heard some voices through the door. Aerith and Tifa looked at each other, then put their ears to the door.

"With Aerith gone, we can compare without her freaking out," Cloud stated. Sephiroth left a 'hmph'.

"Well, as you can see, mines thicker than yours." Aerith and Tifa looked at each other, confused.

"Mines longer, better distance, and great for thrusting." Aerith's eyes widened. Tifa looked at her, then went back to listening in.

"Well, mine's heavier, gives it a look of strength." Tifa couldn't help but blush a little. Aerith was following behind.

"Ha, at least I know how to use mine well." Aerith and Tifa took a deep breath.

"I bet mine could break yours in two." Aerith and Tifa took a deeper breath.

"Mine's hell of a lot sturdier than it looks." Cloud laughed a little.

"Don't you just love our swords?" Sephiroth left a 'heh'. Tifa and Aerith released the biggest sigh of probably their entire lives.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Man, I lost my lighter, and I can't use fire magic in an Inn..." Cid had a big frustration on him. He looked over at Nanaki. "Hey, Red, mind if I use your tail..." Nanaki looked at Cid.

"I find that disgraceful." Cid looked at Nanaki's tail, then back at his cigarette.

"I can't stand it!" Cid was then jumping on Red's back trying to get a hold of his tail. Red was growling violently, trying to twist and turn to get Cid off of him, but to no avail. "Damn it, Red, stay still!" Nanaki started moving up and down trying throw him off.

"Get off of me!"

Momo and Naomi were walking back to their rooms after hanging outside a little. They went over to their door and opened it.

"Dude, just stay still and let me!" Cid yelled out. Momo and Naomi looked at Cid and Nanaki.

"Uhhh..." Naomi looked at Cid, then at Red, then her expression got even more priceless. Cid looked at her awkwardly.

"Wrong...room..." Momo closed the door slowly, still shocked.

XXXXXXXXXX

Vincent and Barret were both polishing their guns at the local weapons shop, where they could get a homey feeling while working on their weapons.

"Think we should get to bed soon?" Barret said, looking over at Vincent. Vincent was still adjusting his grip.

"I'm not so tired, but I guess it'd be a good idea." Barret aimed at a target on the wall, he decided to take a few shots to see if his gun was calibrated right. He shot a few times at the target, but could only hit the red and a some yellow. _The rings were in order from easiest to hardest: red, yellow, green, blue. _After finishing up last touches on his gun, Vincent gave it a go. He hit all red except one green. Vincent looked at his gun.

"Hmm, my gun looks fine, guess it's a pretty tough target to hit, huh?" Barret nodded and tried a few more shots, and still could only hit reds and yellows. Natsumi walked into the weapons shop, not being able to sleep.

"Whatcha guys doin'?" Barret looked at Natsumi.

"Nothin' that should concern you, we target practicing." Natsumi looked at their guns.

"Wow, those look neat! Can I try with you for a bit?" Vincent looked at her uninterestedly.

"Have you ever used a gun?" Natsumi looked over at them.

"Well, once, when my brother left his out and I wanted to see what it was like, I think it was pretty neat!" Vincent and Barret looked at Natsumi. Barret pointed his gun arm to the target and shot, he hit a yellow.

"Look, this ain't for someone with no experience wit' a gun." Natsumi gave him a sad look. She looked down at a gun on the counter and gave the shopkeeper 100 gil for 5 shots.

"I'm going to try it out on that target! I think you guys could use some competition." Barret looked at Natsumi like she was crazy. Vincent looked at her.

"Let me see that gun for a second." She handed it over trustingly. Vincent examined and messed with it for a few minutes.

"There's no way you'll even hit the target with this gun, its quality is so low, you can't hope to get anywhere." Natsumi looked at the gun, then at Vincent, and put on a smile.

"It looks fine to me!" With this Natsumi aimed at the target. She glanced over at Vincent and Barret. "Well, anyway, what do you two go by?" Barret put his gun-arm up with pride.

"I'm Barret, founder of AVALANCHE!" Vincent fired at the target. Yellow...

"Vincent Valentine, what I do is...well, nevermind." Natsumi gave them a smile again.

"My name is Natsumi, nice to meet ya'll!" Natsumi put the gun back in her hands and pointed at the target. Vincent grabbed her arm.

"You're holding the gun all wrong, you'll hurt yourself if you hold it like that when you shoot, especially if you don't have any experience with guns." Natsumi aimed her gun down and nodded. Vincent held his gun in example. "You hold it like this if you're a beginner, with one hand bracing the bottom of the grip, and the other on the trigger, with the first hand grasping the second, like so." Natsumi nodded and held her gun like Vincent told her to.

"Okay, here I go!" Natsumi focused a little and started slowly pulling the trigger. Then paused for a second. She finally fired, leaving off a yelp as she felt the gun push back on her. Vincent looked at Natsumi, then over at Barret, who was completely focused on the target with a look of surprise on his face. Vincent followed Barret's direction of vision. Natsumi hit the blue. Natsumi, a little shaky, looked at the target, then put on a huge smile and a thumbs up.

"I did it! Look where I hit! Barret, Vincent, isn't this great? Vincent...?" Vincent was now frustrated. Beginner's Luck or not, she just hit a target on her first try where Vincent and Barret hadn't hit yet. Barret aimed his gun at the target.

"I'm really proud of you Natsumi..." Barret started slowly, then unleashed a flurry of bullets onto the target. Vincent was blasting away himself. The target was soon pieces of different colors all over the floor. Natsumi looked at them.

"C'mon, guys, it wasn't all that big a deal, but you have to admit that was a good shot, right?" Vincent nodded as he went to get another target.

"Try again." Natsumi took her gun, aimed, and fired. Vincent was about to explode, blue _again_! Natsumi jumped up with excitement.

"Awesome!" Vincent grabbed her gun quickly out of her hands.

"Let me see that!" Vincent focused with the gun and fired. He hit...about five inches **away** from the target. Vincent gave the gun back to Natsumi calmly, "I'm going to bed," and with this he walked out of the weapon shop. Natsumi looked confused. She walked up to Barret.

"Barret, is it that big of a deal? I don't understand." Barret put his hand on her shoulder.

"Well, it is, for us gunmen who have used guns all our lives, it would make us seem really weak to lose so badly to an amateur." Natsumi looked at the door.

"He's not...mad, is he?" Barret took his hand off and fired at the target again.

"Nah, he's just tired," Barret hit a green, "I should probably get to sleep, too, same goes for you, huh?"

Natsumi put her gun on the counter in front of the shopkeeper, "Yeah...then I guess I'll go, see you later! Thank you!" Natsumi ran out the weapon shop. Barret stayed for another half hour until he got a hit on the blue.

"How the # did she do that?"

XXXXXXXXXX

The morning sun now risen, AVALANCHE set off for Corel Mts., each member with their own unique facial expression.

**End of Chapter 4**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer: Don't own anything that has to do with FFVII. R&R if you're not in a lazy mood, don't want to pressure you, though.**_

CHAPTER 5

"Man, this sucks!" Yuffie yelled out, looking at the path...well, it used to be a path...through the mountains. "How do we get through this? Anybody got any ideas? Vincent?" Vincent was still heartbroken. Yuffie turned around. "C'mon! What about you, Cloud?" Cloud shrugged, then jumped onto a nearby rock standing out onto the rubble. Yuffie looked at him with a frustrated look.

"We can't just do that! It's too dangerous!" Sephiroth pointed his sword to his right.

"We could go around this mountain, there's a small area that leads to the other side. Let's just hope the tracks aren't gone when we get there after what we've seen here." Yuffie ran over to Sephiroth.

"Then we've got no other choice, right?" Sephiroth started walking toward where he spoke of, then stopped.

"It'll take us a little longer this way, though." Yuffie ran ahead of him. Everyone followed behind. After a few minutes of walking, a crash came from the ground under them, and a tank with a huge drill on the front of it emerged from underground. Yuffie looked into the window.

"Aww man..." Soon a young man with red spiked back hair and a ponytail, along with an awesome looking suit jumped out of the vehicle. Another man and a blond short-haired young woman slowly climbed out. Cloud stepped forward.

"Reno, Rude, and Elena of the Turks..." Reno pointed his electro-prod at Cloud.

"Got that right, a higher price was put on your captures, so we decided to work a little harder than usual on taking you in." Sephiroth drew his sword and had it to Reno's neck in the blink of an eye.

"I'm not in the mood." Reno seemed to have gotten used to Sephiroth, as he only blinked. Reno then started a smirk.

"Have you now?" Sephiroth wasn't amused by these words. He started a medium level fire spell in his free hand. Another man with long black hair was operating the tank and moved in closer to AVALANCHE. Sephiroth directed the attack to the tank, which didn't have too much of an effect.

"Think only that could possibly defeat us?" Reno put his hand up.

"No, of course not, we're not going to underestimate you all like that." Reno raised his hand higher in the air. "But...how about this?" Reno closed his hand and some sparks were seen bursting out. Sephiroth looked at his hand. He wasn't using a Summon, then...

Soon a giant three headed snake burst out from the mountain. Reno jumped back onto the tank, and Elena and Rude stayed on the ground. Cloud looked at the snake.

"It's a...Midgar Zolom?" Elena laughed a little.

"Even better, a genetically enhanced Midgar Zolom! Courtesy of Hojo, he wanted to test out his new experiment on who other than his former experiments! Silver Angel, Cloud, meet MZ.124!" Sephiroth jumped at it, and it blasted a huge mass of energy at him, which he barely blocked flying back into the ground. Cloud walked over to Sephiroth and helped him up.

"So it's pretty strong, then?" Sephiroth wiped off some dirt from his arm.

"No." Some noises were heard behind them, the tank transformed itself into a large robot armed with several cannons. Reno called from on top of the machine.

"Guys, meet Air Buster Mk. II!" Tifa looked at the machine.

"We're in trouble..." Soon enough Rude ran over and surprise attacked Tifa. She got up and started fighting with Rude. Cloud and Sephiroth quickly shouted orders.

Cloud started first. "Tifa's got Rude! Red, after Elena, make sure she doesn't pull anything she might have up her sleeve!" Sephiroth looked up at MZ.

"Cloud and I will take on the experiment, everyone else, destroy that robot!" Everyone nodded and jumped into action. Red jumped at Elena, but she started dodging him, she was fast, she must have learned how to use materia well. Elenda threw back a large fireball.

"Is that all you got, puppy?" Red jumped straight through the fireball and almost tackled Elena, but she barely got away. Elena decided to note to herself never to use fire on a lion with fire already on its tail.

Vincent jumped onto the arm of the robot, hoping to reach Reno. Reno then started casting Bolt, and then blasted it onto Air Buster's head, the whole robot shocked in electricity, excluding the head and feet, and Vincent took a big shot and fell to the ground. Barret ran over and knelt down at Vincent.

"You okay, man?" Vincent got up and shook his head.

"I didn't see that coming, looks like they planned ahead this time...unusual..." Barret charged up for a Big Shot. Reno looked down at him and pulled out a grenade.

"Not this time." Reno then threw it down near Barret, and soon Barret's gun started sparking and the Big Shot overloaded the gun. This hurt Barret a little, causing him to get on his knee.

"The hell...?" Yuffie looked at what happened to Barret and Vincent.

"When did the Turks...get so tactical? When did they even get smart?" Reno jumped off of Air Buster and crashed into the grand next to Yuffie with an explosion. He got up and pointed his electro-prod at Yuffie.

"When we decided we wanted to take care of you guys." He jumped at Yuffie and she jumped up and threw her Shuriken down at him. He hit it with his electro-prod and sent it sparking and flying back at Yuffie. Yuffie yelped and put her arms in front of her. The Shuriken stopped just before it hit her. Cloud casted Stop...on a weapon? He looked over at Yuffie from on top of MZ's head which was starting to light up and he gave a salute. Yuffie smiled and jumped down to the ground putting a glowing fist into the ground, sending a large quake into Reno's direction. Reno wasn't expecting this and took the full weight of the attack, sending him to the ground. Yuffie walked up and kicked Reno's weapon out of his hand stepped on his chest.

"Ha, no one can defeat the Great Ninja Yuffie!" With this, she put her head up with pride and noticed Cloud giving her a thumbs up while holding MZ down with his sword while Sephiroth was seeming to start an attack on it. Reno looked up at her and gave a big breath.

"Can't...breathe..." Yuffie got off of Reno and picked him up by his collar.

"You're done with now, it's over." Reno laughed a little, still catching a breath.

"Yeah, it is over...but I'm not the one who's done with." And Reno opened his hands which had more sparks going over it. Yuffie knew Reno was about to attack her, but she couldn't stop him in time. Reno closed his hand, now covered in electricity and punched Yuffie in the stomach. This put a huge shock through her body and she was almost instantly knocked out.

Barret was still on his knees, with Aerith healing him, his arm seemed to have taken a little internal damage. Cid had jumped on top of Air Buster and jumped from there starting a Hyper Jump, hoping to take it out like that. Vincent was in the process of turning into Galian. Sephiroth and Cloud were taking their own individual heads of MZ, it seems whatever previous plan they had failed. Nanaki had captured Elena and was casting Sleepel on her. Turks had enough resistance that Nanaki would have to keep her there for Sleepel to work effectively.

Reno put Yuffie on his shoulder and was running over to Air Buster, waving his hand in the air. The hatch opened and Reno jumped in. Tifa just knocked out Rude when she noticed.

"They've got Yuffie, don't blow up Air Buster!" Cid, again, had to throw his Dragoon Lance to the ground before he landed so Air Buster wouldn't be destroyed, taking Yuffie with it. Nanaki finally put Elena to sleep and ran up next to Tifa. Cloud just cut off one of MZ's heads with Climhazzard and Sephiroth blasted his head with Draw Slash. There was only one head left, but MZ didn't seem in pain at all. Cloud looked at Air Buster, then back at Sephiroth.

"I'm going to bust into Air Buster and get Yuffie back so they can finish it off. Can you handle this monster?" Sephiroth blocked a wave of energy shooting from its last head.

"You don't have to worry about me, this thing won't last much longer." Cloud nodded and made a big dash toward Air Buster. MZ had a bright glow emanating from a crystal on its last head. Sephiroth looked at Hojo's next failure.

"Hojo...you're running out of ideas for strong monsters, aren't you?"

Air Buster was firing cannons at Vincent and Cid as they were dodging it and thinking of a way to defeat it without hurting Yuffie. They then saw Cloud run straight past both of them and crash through the front of Air Buster. Barret looked at the hole left in Air Buster.

"The hell?" They both looked back at MZ. Sephiroth was sitting on top of the corpse of Hojo's idea and watching the fight. Vincent looked at Barret.

"Should we go in and help him out?" Barret nodded.

"Yeah let's-" Just as he started, a huge crash was heard from Air Buster. Cloud made another gaping hole for an exit out of Air Buster, with Yuffie on his back and Reno and Tseng in his arms. Cloud landed on the ground and threw the two Turks on the ground next to an unconscious Rude and a sleeping Elena. Air Buster then exploded, leaving fire and sparks shooting out everywhere. Reno looked at Cloud.

"Oww, man, didn't have to bash me in the head like that!" Cloud just stared at Reno in the eyes. Sephiroth walked up to the Turks.

"Tell Hojo that next time he makes an abomination, make sure it's not an abomination for no reason. C'mon, everyone, let's go." Cloud followed behind Sephiroth. Everyone else started following, and Barret stopped in front of Reno and grabbed his collar.

"You a lucky man, but better not mess wit' my gun again, or else." Barret then left with the rest of AVALANCHE. Reno looked over at his superior.

"What do we do now?"

"We're close to Costa Del Sol, let's go on a vacation for a bit, I'm tired."

"Rude and Elena?"

"They can take care of themselves, let's go."

XXXXXXXXXX

Yuffie woke up on an unknown back. First thought: 'Turks!?' Yuffie left a yell and jumped off Cloud and threw him down. Cloud looked up in surprise.

"Yuffie...you're...awake." Yuffie looked down at him, then recognized who it was.

"Cloud! I thought I was captured..." Cloud got up.

"Don't worry, you're fine," Yuffie sighed in relief, she really didn't want to have to go through experimenting from some mad scientist then have to make an escape to find out she was now a mutated monster.

"So...where are we?" Sephiroth glanced back at Yuffie.

"Luckily the train tracks were still there so we were able to get across easily. Right now we're on some hills near the tracks that lead to Corel. If we kept moving from here, we'd be at Corel very soon, but Barret has to check his gun every few minutes or so. You know, just in case something happens and serious issues occur. He'll have to fix it completely at Corel, since there are some mechanics there that could repair Barret's gun."

"Oh, I see." Yuffie looked around. "Where's Cid and Vincent?" She looked around some more. "...And Aerith and Tifa?" Barret tinkered with his gun a little more.

"They went ahead to greet everyone at Corel." Hearing this, Yuffie jumped up.

"Then I'll go ahead, too!" Cloud grabbed her arm, and Sephiroth walked up to her.

"No." Yuffie pulled away from Cloud and folded her arms.

"Why not?" Sephiroth pulled her shirt up a little.

"What are you-" Sephiroth pointed at her stomach, and Yuffie looked down at it, there was a mark from where Reno punched her. Sephiroth gave her a fire materia.

"Try using it." Yuffie struggled as she tried casting a spell. She pulled out one of her mastered materia, but she still couldn't use any magic.

"What happened!?" Cloud put his hand on her shoulder.

"Reno did something with that attack of his, we'll have to figure it out. In the mean time, you can't go anywhere on your own." Barret stood up and walked next to everyone.

"We can go now, my gun seems to be in check for the moment. We need to get to Corel quickly." The team began walking. Yuffie was walking ahead of everyone else for a while, when she felt a stinging pain in her stomach. Yuffie clutched her stomach and crumpled to the ground. Cloud and Barret ran over to her.

"Hey, you okay?" Barret asked as Cloud moved her arms and checked the mark. Cloud looked over at Sephiroth, who was walking over.

"Sephiroth, look at this." Sephiroth looked at the mark left by Reno. It was glowing several different colors and shining slightly. Sephiroth watched Yuffie as she stood up, seemingly not in pain anymore.

"Yuffie, can you hear me?" Cloud looked into Yuffie's eyes, they were shining in different colors like the mark.

"Yuffie?" Yuffie tilted her head over in Cloud's direction, not saying anything. She threw Cloud to the ground and had her Shuriken to Cloud's throat. Cloud grabbed Yuffie's arm, trying to keep her from killing him. He managed to throw her off and glanced back toward Sephiroth.

"Mind control?" Sephiroth drew his sword and pointed it at Yuffie.

"No." Cloud looked in surprise at Sephiroth's sword. Barret ran up to Sephiroth.

"Sephiroth, you ain't gonna kill her, are ya?" Yuffie threw her Shuriken at Cloud, and he just barely dodged it.

"If it's not mind control, what is it?" Sephiroth casted an ice spell and fired it at her.

"Body control." Barret looked confused.

"Body?"

"Yes, Yuffie knows fully well what she's doing right now, her thoughts are intact, but she cannot move her body to her own will." Cloud dodged another one of Yuffie's attacks.

"How did you figure that?" Cloud asked. Sephiroth stared into Yuffie's eyes.

"I can feel the sadness flowing out of her. That's just one thing, though. Also, you can tell she's fighting the control of her body with her mind, her attacks aren't nearly as accurate or powerful as they usually are."

"What do we do?" Yuffie charged at them again, Sephiroth dodging and tossing her to the ground. She instantly sprang back up.

"We have three choices the way I see it. One, hold Yuffie and let her fight her way into control of her own body again. Two, find the source of the spell, probably that mark or Reno, and subdue it. Three..." Cloud looked in fear at Sephiroth, his expression didn't change. "Kill Yuffie." Barret rushed over after hearing Sephiroth's words.

"We can't do that, we gotta try to stop the spell!" Sephiroth put up his sword, as Yuffie ran at them again.

"The mind is a powerful thing, it essentially controls the bodily functions, except in this case, which the movement of tissue and bones are completely paralyzed whilst another mechanism moves them for it. Yuffie is strong herself, it's very possible she can use her mind to regain control of her movement. Have faith." Cloud dodged Yuffie and pinned her to the ground, holding her down.

"How did Reno do this anyway?" Sephiroth walked up while Barret helped in holding Yuffie down. He moved his hand softly across the shining mark. It shined a little more as Sephiroth got close. Sephiroth went through his pockets.

"I think I figured the actions of the mark." Cloud looked at Sephiroth, going through his things.

"And?" Sephiroth pulled out a materia.

"Watch closely." Sephiroth put the materia next to Yuffie's mark. It started shining violently, Yuffie struggling in pain, then dimmed down to a normal mark. Barret gave a surprised look.

"It was...materia?" Sephiroth nodded.

"It seems the actions of materia are what dictate whether Yuffie's body's actions." Yuffie put her head up.

"Ah, I can move and talk again!" Cloud and Barret let go. Sephiroth put his hand out to Yuffie and helped her up.

"It seems when there is calm materia, the mark remains calm itself, but when materia is used as magic, like Yuffie tried casting a spell before, the mark responds with something like this." Cloud looked at Yuffie, then at Sephiroth.

"So why tell Yuffie to try casting a spell before?"

"I knew Yuffie wasn't able to use magic, I could feel that, but it was also strange, so I had her try to test it out." Yuffie shook her head.

"This is all confusing me, I won't try using magic again until we get this figured out, so let's just get to Corel already!" Sephiroth nodded and followed Yuffie as she ran toward Corel. Cloud and Barret followed after some time thinking. Cloud looked over to Barret.

"I just...don't like this, what else could happen, and how did Reno do something like that?" Barret shrugged.

"Dunno, maybe it's just something new he learned, I mean he did trap Tifa in a small pyramid back at the slums, we can't really underestimate the guy."

"I guess we need to keep an eye on Yuffie, then, huh?"

"Yeah."

**End of Chapter 5**


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